Some dreams more important than others

Dear David: I know sometimes people send in dreams and you help them figure out the meaning. I've had this dream more than once, so I figure it must be important, but I can't decipher it. The dream starts with me going back to the house I grew up in, the only house that my family and I lived until I left to be married. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that needs to be picked up from the house; in fact it's packed full. No one is living in the house and as I go through the building, I don't recognize any of the items, but every room has stuff, I just don't remember any of it belonging to me or my family. Then, the dream jumps to me outside the house with a shiny new black pickup truck. When I realize that the truck belongs to me, I feel very proud, but then I immediately realize that I have a lot of work to do, and I wake up. Are all dreams important and some more than others? How common is it to have a repeat dream? Why don't dreams just tell us what they want us to know?- Dream Mover

Dear DM: Dreams are important, but I think some of our dreams are perhaps much more important than others. I think the dream you have described having is one of those important ones. Dreams are our unconscious mind processing through material, working on our behalf, and often delivering or at least offering an important "message" to the conscious mind. Sometimes, the material that needs processing is relatively trivial, and those dreams may not even need to be remembered by the conscious mind. Those are the ones where we wake up knowing we've dreamed something, but have no memory of the content. Repeating dreams are a fairly common occurrence for people who pay heed to their dreams, and when a dream repeats itself, I think our unconscious is sending us a strong message saying "pay attention!"

Each one of us are the very best interpreters of our own dreams, because we each have the rich individual context of our past and present life experiences, as well as our conscious thoughts to help us make sense of the dreams. As to why the unconscious mind uses imagery to communicate in dreams, I think it's a matter of getting our attention. Think about parables in the Christian tradition or koans in Buddhism and Zen; we remember them, grapple with them and even "wrestle" with them. In many ways they turn what we "think" we know collectively upside down. Perhaps the imagery of dreams gives us some of that same sense on an individual level.

I would suggest starting from a point of seeing the imagery of your house as representative of the mind. The fact that it is the very house you grew up in, but with unfamiliar stuff, might hint at needing to explore what is in that space a little closer; you have some "unpacking" to do. Ask yourself whether there is material from your childhood that might need a little more investigation and examination; you might even need to move some of this out of the mind and into the "light" of day. Sometimes a good therapist can be an invaluable ally as you move through material like this.

A car or truck showing up in the dream is perhaps a nudge to "get moving." I think it's especially significant that the vehicle that appears is a truck; something used to haul stuff. It is interesting to me that black is generally a symbol for the unknown or the unconscious. It also represents potential and possibilities. Your dream is very rich and is inviting you to get "trucking." Unpack some of that old stuff now.

Marriage and family therapist David McMillian can be heard on "Strategies for Living" any time at www.strategiesforliving.com and from 9:05 to 10 a.m. Sundays on Newsradio 710 KEEL. Email your questions to deardavid@live.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Some dreams more important than others

Dear David: I know sometimes people send in dreams and you help them figure out the meaning. I've had this dream more than once, so I figure it must be important, but I can't decipher it. The dream